Bob Holman

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Bob Holman as MC 2012 in Grand Central Terminal

Bob Holman (born March 10, 1948 in La Follette , Tennessee ) is an American poet and poetry activist.

His cross-genre work and literary initiatives have had a major impact on spoken word poetry, poetry slam , poetry video art and poetry club culture worldwide.

Life

Bob Holman graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1970 and initially worked as the co-editor of the NYC Poetry Calendar , a free monthly publication about reading dates, literary events and poets. Between 1977 and 1984, Holman coordinated and curated various literary programs for the St. Mark's Poetry Project . He played a key role in the reopening of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1987, where from 1988 to 1996 he led the Chicago- based poetry slam format to national and international attention. In 1995 he was one of the founders of the spoken word label Mouth Almighty, which existed until 1998 and which, together with a team of poets, won the US National Poetry Slam competition in 1997. In 2002, Bob Holman founded the Bowery Poetry Club and has since organized, among other things, a weekly poetry slam series called NYC-Urbana as its owner and organizer.

In a 2005 interview, Holman said of his work as a literary activist:

"... If you have a poetry club, you have to have a slam! It's that simple. You have to have an open mike. You have to have a slam. You have to have readings in languages ​​other than English. You have to have poetry with music, and you have to have poetry with dance. You have to have poetry with film. You have to have hip-hop. These days ... what you have to have, what is essential to the wellbeing of any poetry club, is to have a slam "

"... If you have a poetry club, you have to do slams! It's that simple. You have to have an open mike. You have to have a slam. There must be readings in languages ​​other than English. You need lyric with music and lyric with dance. There has to be poetry with film and hip-hop. Nowadays ... what is essential for any poetry club to thrive is the slam. "

He held various teaching positions and visiting professorships . From 1998 to 2002 he was Visiting Professor for Writing and Integrated Arts at Bard College. Since 2003 he has taught the graduate course Exploding Text: Poetry Performance at Columbia University, School of the Arts . Together with Margery Snyder, Holman oversees the poetry section of the About.com portal.

Publications

His work as an author, organizer, editor, curator and producer added up to a total of seven books of his own, two published anthologies, several CDs and several dozen produced poetry video clips. A milestone was the anthology Aloud! Edited together with Miguel Algarin . Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café , which won the American Book Award . Holman's most recent collection of poems, A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, was first exhibited at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and was published in 2006 by Aperture.

Cinematic work

From 1986 to 1994 Bob Holman produced a series of over 50 poetry spots for the broadcaster WNYC-TV, which was awarded a total of three Emmys during this time. At the same time he produced the poetry video collection United States of Poetry with Mark Pellington and Josh Blum for PBC . He also produced the literary series rAP mEETS pOETRY together with Bill Adler , which in turn led to a series of broadcasts on MTV, initially as isolated spots between music clips, then in a separate series Spoken Word Unplugged . He was featured twice at the Chicago Poetry Video Festival . In 2002 and 2008 he was invited to the International Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin with his cinematic works .

Prizes and awards

He has received three NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry and grants from NEA, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Lannan Foundation . In 2004 he was featured as a poet on the Def Poetry Jam series on HBO. In 2003 he received the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award .

Since 1992, Bob Holman has been invited to literary festivals around the world and to appearances in literary houses in Germany. In 2002 he presented an International Poets Cabaret at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

bibliography

  • The Awesome Whatever , produced and with music by Vito Ricci, Bowery Records 2007
  • A Couple of Ways of Doing Something , Aperture, 2006
  • Beach Simplifies Horizon , 1998, The Grenfell Press 1998
  • In With the Out Crowd Almighty / Mercury 1996
  • Aloud! Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe , edited with Miguel Algarin, Henry Holt Publishers 1996
  • Bob Holman's The Collect Call of the Wild Henry Holt Publishers 1995
  • "Panic * DJ!" Bob Holman Live at the Club LaMama 1990
  • Cupid's Cashbox , Jordan Davies 1990
  • SWEAT & SEX & POLITICS! , Peeka Boo Press 1986
  • 8 Chinese Poems , Peeka Boo Press 1981
  • Tear To Open , Power Mad Press 1979
  • The Rainbow Raises Its Shoulder / When A Flower Grows , Chinatown Planning Council 1979
  • Bicentennial Suicide: a novel to be performed , Frontward Books 1976

Filmography

  • Slam, 1999
  • SlamNation, 1998
  • The United States of Poetry , PBS, with director Mark Pellington and producer Josh Blum, from 1991

Web links

Commons : Bob Holman  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. "CHAPTER 3: Getting a Roof On It; The Reopening of the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe." Soft skull press. ISBN 1-933-36882-9 .
  2. ↑ Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. "CHAPTER 4: Birth of a Movement; NYC Slam's First Year." Soft skull press. ISBN 1-933-36882-9 .
  3. ↑ http://www.bowerypoetry.com Website of the Bowery Poetry Club
  4. ↑ Aptowicz, page 280th
  5. ↑ http://www.bobholman.com
  6. ↑ http://poetry.about.com - Poetry About portal
  7. ^ Literature workshop Berlin
  8. ↑ Boris Preckwitz, Slam Poetry - Nachhut der Moderne, Hamburg 2002, p. 63
personal data
SURNAME Holman, Bob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet and poetry activist
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH La Follette (Tennessee)